day 314: subtleties of the miao dao

concepts:

• body & blade movements
• small movements
• tip location
• borrowing energy
• bouncing energy
  
• body movement & center
  

lessons:

• miao dao

we went a lot farther on the miao dao in the last Sunday class. we spent the initial half going through the basics, but then Sifu said he wanted us to start working through the applications in the form, saying that we'd understand the basics a lot better if we saw how they were used in practice.

miao dao

we worked on the first moves of line 1 of the miao dao. Sifu said that there's a general misunderstanding of these moves, with most practitioners using large, sweeping motions. he said that this was a dominant misperception, with many people taking the miao dao as a weapon requiring large slashing movements.

in Sifu's view, this is a mistake. the nature of the weapon is not large movements. given the size of the weapon, large sweeping motions invariably open up large openings which an opponent can attack. in addition, because its size means greater mass, the inertia generated by large movements makes it very difficult to counter against attacks made in tight space.

according the Sifu, understanding the movements and their application requires an understanding of how it was used on the battlefield. the miao dao was made large with the purpose of providing greater range, with the goal of taking down attackers mounted on horseback. soldiers who expected to stay alive against mounted attackers needed to exploit the range advantage of the miao dao while still being able to quickly engage defenses. this meant movements that extended the miao dao to penetrate an opponent's gates while still keeping your own gates closed.

Sifu demonstrated what he asserts is the right interpretation of the moves. he stressed the following:

• that in the 1st few movements of line 1, the body is actually doing the majority of the activity and the blade, relative to the body, is actually doing a minority of action. as a result, the work is being done by the body rather than the blade.
• the blade movement is actually small. Sifu said that if we observe the path traced by the tip of the blade that it actually follows a small, tight path, and that in contrast our bodies are tracing a much larger path across the floor.
• the tip location is important. the tip essentially marks a vector following a curve, with the force of the blade moving parallel to the direction of the tip. wherever the path of the tip goes, so goes the application.
• on defense, you're not supposed to block the opponent's blade. instead, you have to receive it in a way that allows you to borrow the energy of their movement. the idea is to take the magnitude of their force, but then redirect back into your attack against them.
• redirecting energy involves a slight bounce. Sifu cautioned that this doesn't mean a bounce off their blade, since this is just a type of block. bouncing off the blade means that you're bouncing without redirecting their strike. he stressed that we have to receive and redirect their energy first, and then bounce off their energy vector. the idea is that you take whatever force they're applying and sending it off in a direction that is sufficient to ensure your safety and opens their gate for your attack.
• the magnitude of the force vector in the blade is not from the arms. Sifu said that it actually should be a combination of the force from the opponent's attack and the force generated from your body. as a result, body movement is critical. Sifu said that this requires movement driven not so much by the arms but rather by the center, with the body moving the center so that you maintain a single structure capable of conveying power without loss.
  

this, of course, is harder than it looks, and it's counter-intuitive, since the instinct is for you to use your arms to deal with threats identified by your eyes. it's different using your body, and involves a certain measure of conscious effort, which in turn requires a certain measure of composure--which is hard to do when there's an opponent with a 6-foot sword coming at you.

Sifu took some time to note that every movement in the form has an application, including the opening and closing. as a result, it's important not to distort any of the movements for aesthetic effect, since they all should retain some connection to their applications.

i have to say that this was actually enjoyable. it's a bit of a workout, but it's illuminating to learn the miao dao in the context of history. it gives a sense of logic and purpose behind the form. it's also interesting to me, because it gives more insight into history, particularly in terms of what ancient Chinese soldiers actually had to do. if i had any historians interested in Chinese history to talk to, i'd really recommend that they try this.

day 313: fighting, principles, techniques, forms

concepts:

• ting jing, hwa jing
• gate control, gate entry
• proactive v. reactive
• set-up
• vertical v. horizontal
• lian fa, gong fa, da fa
• fighting v. applications v. forms
• principles v. techniques
• maintenance
  

lessons:

• hsing-yi
• kyudo
  

this post refers to Saturday, July 30. i missed class on August 6, and so this brings things up to date. we're heading into the dog days of summer, so it's been getting warmer lately.

hsing-yi

we've completed going through the 12 animals for Shanxi hsing-yi. Sifu says he now wants to spend some time showing how to translate everything we've learned into actual fighting. he says there's a big difference, and that we have to learn the connection between the 2.

Sifu's been spurred by conversations he's had recently in his college instruction and participation in local panel seminars. he's gotten questions about the difficulties TCMA practitioners seem to have in applying what they've been learning in actual fighting. this is a common issue in TCMA, and a regular observation about current TCMA made in the larger martial arts community: a lot of TCMA practitioners don't seem to be able to use what they've learned in fights. it's given TCMA a dubious reputation in Western societies, particularly in comparison to the more popularly known fights in boxing, MMA, etc.

Sifu had us pair up, with each pair being sparring partners. Sifu told us not to engage in full-contact sparring, but to work on sparring drills. for today, each pair had 1 partner work on defense and the other partner work on offense. the offensive partner was to try to utilize only the 1st 2 animals: dragon and tiger. the defensive partner was to counter or escape.

Sifu had us do several drills out of this. drill 1 was no contact, with the focus on sticking to each other while both partners were largely stationary. drill 2 was the same, but incorporated more footwork, so each partner was free to move across the ground/floor. drill 3 was no sticking but sensing & receiving while moving freely. drill 4 was greater contact with sticking, incorporating light strikes, but again stationary. drill 5 was light contact with sticking and footwork. drill 6 was light contact with no sticking while moving freely. we rotated partners once we had gone through these drills.

Sifu said there were a number of things to focus on with these drills:

• ting jing (sensing): we need to become accustomed to reading the opponent and getting a feel of what they're trying to do at any given moment. this doesn't mean point fixation (i.e., locking onto a single point and following it), but rather general awareness of their overall behavior and general demeanor.
• hwa jing (receiving): we need to become familiar with reading and receiving an opponent's movements, so that we can neutralize them or avoid them.
• gate control: each person has to learn how to protect their gates to deny the opponent an entry for attack
• gate entry: each person has to learn how to locate, open, and enter an opponent's gates
• pro-active v. reactive: each person has to learn how to be pro-active on offense and defense. it is okay to be reactive, but it is always harder to respond to something than it is to initiate things (as so many team sports teach: offense is easier than defense). in addition, in a fight, it's important to control the overall engagement (from initial encounter to ending resolution), and this requires being pro-active to set the direction of the fight.
  
• set-up: applications can't be applied directly. they have to be set up, in the sense that the opponent has to be lured into making mistakes regarding their gates and their structure. every application has a counter, and so an opponent can always defend against an attack. for an attack to work, the opponent has to be manipulated so that they are not able to defend against the atack.
• vertical (dragon) and horizontal (tiger): Sifu asked us to recognize the overall orientations of dragon and tiger as being vertical and horizontal, respectively. in the drills, he said we needed to get a feel of offense and defense both vertically and horizontally. he noted that we should try to get an intuitive sense of this in terms of ting, hwa, na, and fa jing, whether sticking or not sticking to the opponent.
  

we spent some time in between partners discussing the pedagogical philosophy (i.e., teaching philosophy) behind this type of training. Sifu said that in the modern era TCMA has a major problem in that many practitioners don't know how to use it in actual fighting. fighting skills are not trained or taught as commonly as it was in the past. in the West, this is largely a function of how TCMA was introduced to Western audiences. in the East, this is because TCMA was suppressed during the Cultural Revolution. as a result, TCMA has lost a lot of respect. it's also led to a lot of misperceptions about TCMA.

Sifu said we needed to dispel these misperceptions. TCMA has substance to it, and it is valid, but not in the ways so many modern practitioners seem to think. Sifu pointed out that fighting--whether tournament, street, or battlefield--is not like forms or meditating or thinking or anything else. unfortunately, in his view, too many people inside and outside the TCMA community think that TCMA is just the latter. the connections are not taught or not understood. as a result, people don't see how TCMA translates into actual fighting.

Sifu stressed that knowing how to use martial arts in a fight involves several different types of education: lian fa, gong fa, da fa. all these types of education must be taken together as a martial arts pedagogy (teaching method). lian fa is forms, gong fa is conditioning, and da fa is sparring. lian fa has the purpose of teaching fundamentals, including structure, principles, and techniques. gong fa has the purpose of conditioning a person's attributes for fighting in terms of physical fitness, power generation, etc. together, lian fa and gong fa provide the mental and physical building blocks, respectively, to be used in fighting. da fa is training in how to take those building blocks and use them in actual fighting, using various forms of sparring to progressively teach how to fight.

according to Sifu, in the modern era too much of TCMA instruction is lian fa. in fact, in his opinion, almost all of it is. based on what he's witnessed, very few TCMA practitioners are being taught gong fa and da fa, and as a result hold extremely dangerous misperceptions about fighting and their own martial skills. Sifu has commented on this in the past, saying that lian fa and gong fa do little good without an understanding of da fa, and this is the reason why you sometimes see street fighters with no training who are able to defeat trained martial artists--because they've gotten da fa through the hard experience and understand the reality of fighting, whereas the martial artists often have not.

Sifu noted that too often, TCMA practitioners think that fighting needs to look like applications or forms. he said this is a mistake, and that a fight scenario is never as clean as an application or form, especially against an experienced fighter who knows what they're doing. reality is never an ideal environment, while applications and forms always take place in ideal environments. Sifu said that we have to understand the role of applications and forms--they're not to teach actual fighting, but rather to teach fundamentals and building blocks to be used in learning fighting. applications teach a student the basic movements to apply principles contained within the forms, and neither actually teaches how to work them into a fight.

to learn how to fight you actually have to fight so you can learn how use the movements applying the principles against an opponent who is not cooperative. the issue is to do so safely. Sifu said this is why there is sparring, with different forms of sparring designed to lead a student on a progressive understanding of how to deal with the chaotic and hostile reality of fighting.

Sifu emphasized this is why he keeps telling us to not fixate too much on application techniques or obsess too much on forms. he said this will actually mislead us from concentrating on the most important thing, which is principles. the danger with techniques is that you fixate on them, and try to catalog them in your mind, so that you become a database of techniques and forms. unfortunately, it's hard to choose techniques and follow forms in an actual fight, where the situation is random, confusing, and fast. in order to match the randomness, confusion, and speed of a fight, you have to be mentally and physically flexible in your actions. this means that you understand the principles and have an intuitive feel of how to move to express those principles.

Sifu's talked about this in the past, with comments about the distinction between "empty" understanding versus "substantive" understanding. "empty" understanding is seen in someone who is "married to the form", in the sense that they do applications and forms as movements without understanding the principles in them. you see this in practitioners who do them as physical movements without a recognition of the intent and awareness of the physics. the hallmark symptom is a practitioner who just fixates on the form and insists on always sticking to some version of a form without being able to offer a fight-based explanation why. in contrast, "substantive" understanding is seen in someone who can modify and work through a form, with physical movements that display some evidence of intent and understanding of the physics, to the extent that the practitioner can explain what can change and what can't be changed and why in terms of what might happen in the context of a fight.

kyudo

the continuing theme for kyudo this week was maintenance. oh sure, we did shooting. in fact, we did a lot of shooting. more than the usual class. but a lot of my attention was on maintenance issues, which i am realizing i really need to spend some time learning.

superficially, maintenance seems mundane, and not really a contributor to the art of shooting a bow and arrow. but the art involves equipment, and so the condition of the equipment relates to the development of the art. a lot of people tend to gloss over maintenance, but i'm starting to recognized that it's something worth devoting time.

i thought i'd fixed my string last week to fit the nock on my arrows. however, the shrinkage and drying of the glue had apparently resulted in a shape that only fit the nock from a certain angle. this is a problem, since the string has to be free to move on its axial rotational plane of motion to minimize distortion and energy loss in the arrow.

fixing this, unfortunately, meant stripping away all the work i'd done last week and re-gluing the string. and with more care and attention than i had done last week.

while i was at it, i also decided it was time to add more pine tar. i've suspected i needed to apply more pine tar in cleaning my string. Sensei told me i should be able to smell the pine when cleaning the string, and i rarely do. the pine tar is hard, and so has to be softened. as a result, it involves a measure of time to soften the tar before i could apply it.

unfortunately, i apparently misjudged the amount of tar i needed. Wilton happened to notice what i'd done and he appeared shocked, noting that "uh...that's a LOT of tar." i realized when he meant when i tried to rub the tar down, and instead found that i'd just made the string a long sticky piece of twine. i ended up having to spend a good portion of time trying to remove tar from the string.

of course, all this is with equipment that i've been told is low-maintenance. i'm using a fiberglass bow and synthetic string. others have told me that the traditional bamboo bow and hemp string are much more labor-intensive and require much closer monitoring in terms of maintenance.

hmmmmmmm...i think i'm going to need to take some time out and just work on learning maintenance. i may ask Sensei for a class on this.

day 312: review review review

concepts:

• review
• review
• review
• principles v. techniques
  

lessons:

• hsing-yi
• kyudo
  

this will be another short post, since i can pretty much summarize what the focus of last Saturday was: review. lots of review.

which was good. i really needed it.

Sifu took some time to get everyone together for some discussion. we primarily dealt with 3 major topics:

• the Las Vegas tournament is coming up on August 12-14. we need to start organizing rides and figuring out who is competing and who is judging. we're a little short-handed this year, since Kieun and Cheng-chieh are both gone, meaning that we're going to have to shuffle things a little bit in terms of judging.
• Sifu is thinking about holding a retreat in the mountains. he held one some years ago, but it's been a very long time. the purpose of the retreat is to cover teaching methods, and to help us learn how to teach what we've learned to differing kinds of students.
• principles v. techniques. Sifu reminded us to not become obsessed with techniques or forms, and to focus instead on the underlying principles. apparently, it came up during his summer class at UCLA. he's spoken to us about this before, but feels it's important enough to stress. he said that techniques and forms are only tools to learn, but that they're not all of martial arts and that it is dangerous to obsess over them. he said they're only meant to help us learn the underlying principles used in martial arts, and that the principles is what we need to focus on.
  

hsing-yi

we reviewed the bear & eagle. i actually ended up taking all of class to go through as many of the Shanxi 12 animals as i can. i needed to refresh my memory, and to also get the feeling of the movements back.

things were a little rough. it's going to take some polishing.

kyudo

Sensei was not present tonight, so Jean, being the most senior person present, ran class. turnout was a little light, and so everyone had plenty of opportunities to shoot. we actually did more shooting than we've done in previous classes.

i also took some time to do some much-needed maintenance on my bow, particularly with my string. it's going to take a little time to sort this out, but hopefully i managed to address the major issues.

days 310 & 311: ugh, a long way back

concepts:

• basics

lessons:

• hsing-yi
• kyudo
• miao dao
  

i'm back...sort of. at least, in body. perhaps not in much else. i was gone for 3 weeks on vacation, but took an extra week off to get over the jet lag. so this past Saturday and Sunday were my first days back. needless to say, i was a bit out of sorts.

i'm not going into too much detail, since i think things were so rough that there's not much point in me trying to summarize anything since i wasn't really doing much good with anything. it is amazing just how quickly you can lose your abilities with any period of inactivity. i felt like i was starting all over again.

i'll suffice it to say that i'm back with just trying to get my handle on the basics. and i mean basics. as in trying to regain stances, flexibility, coordination, and physics. and even this was a bit of a struggle.

i'm going to have to take the next few weeks to get myself sorted out. in the meantime, i think you will just have to be patient with me if the posts return to something more fundamental and less advanced. it doesn't sound like fun--and i guess it's really not--but i can tell i need it.

joy joy joy.

day 309: miao dao basics

concepts:

• triangle
• borrowing
• percussion point
  

lessons:

• miao dao

i should note that i'm going on vacation for several weeks, and so i'm going to miss class for a little time. as a result, there won't be new posts for awhile. i'll be back in early July, so things will resume then. this post will be the last for now.

miao dao

we resumed the miao dao lessons. oddly enough, Viet wasn't here. but we had enough people that we could still partner up for practice.

today was mostly spent on familiarizing ourselves with the weapon and trying some basics. there's a bit of an intimidation factor in learning weapons, particularly ones like the miao dao, which can generate a lot of force off simple movements. this factor is multiplied in the initial stages of learning, when use of the weapon is still clumsy, since minute mistakes are magnified into physically dangerous consequences. as a result, it takes a little time to just get used to the miao dao, particularly in terms of learning how to manipulate its weight and inertia and understand its characteristics in force, direction, and spacing.

Sifu showed us the opening movements of the initial form, and then focused on having us just practice the applications of the movements in pairs. the movements look simple, but they're very precise (simple movements = lots of force, remember?) and require some getting used to.

this was particularly true for today. i had trouble with just about everything we were doing. the movements are all new and so felt unnatural to me. the first application, for example, was most vexing. the idea is to receive an opponent's incoming downward strike without blocking, but instead receiving it so that you use the force of their strike to drive your miao dao down and around to strike in return. essentially, you borrow their energy. it's meant to be a combination deflection and strike, so that you deflect their attack in a safe direction and move yourself into a striking position.

the idea is to receive by forming a triangle between your arms, your miao dao, and the opponent and then borrowing the opponent's energy. i really struggled with this. i think it's going to take some time until i get comfortable with the miao dao and get some intuitive sense of its feel and physical characteristics.

Alex, who stuck around for a little bit, also pointed out that it's important to have an awareness and instinctive feel of the percussion point of the blade. the percussion point is a term from engineering, and it refers to the point where a force vector won't generate a torque or rotation on a body mass but instead produces a lateral translation of the body's location. this is important, because it means the maximum amount of incoming force engages in a reaction with the mass to generate a recoil, so that the reactive force is an inelastic collision rather than an elastic one. an inelastic collision means an efficient transmission of energy, elastic means dissipation and hence inefficient transmission of energy.

for objects like a tennis racquet, the percussion point is often called the "sweet spot" in the center of the racquet head, where the ball won't generate a torque moving the racquet around the player's wrist and hence generate inefficiencies in the player's application of force (and hence dissipate the player's effort), but instead transmit directly into the racquet and generate maximum recoil off the racquet head, thereby maximizing the player's application of force.

for a bladed weapon like the miao dao, the percussion point is somewhere along the blade, usually closer to the handle. if you receive a strike on the percussion point, you maximize the amount of force you can borrow and minimize the amount of effort you have to use. if you don't, you have to expend more effort, wasting your energy.

the thing is, you can't think consciously about the percussion point in the context of actual use. it has to be instinctive and natural. and for that to happen requires an intuitive grasp and comfort level that can only come with time. given my relative lack of exposure to martial arts over my lifetime, i haven't had that time.

which means i have to spend that time now.

so yeah, this is going to take some work.

day 308: snake and tai bird

concepts:

• timing
• sending
• handgrip
  

lessons:

• hsing-yi
• kyudo
  

so i missed last weekend, meaning i had to do a little make-up work this Saturday. it wasn't too hard, but it did mean a little extra work to make sure i caught up to everyone else.

hsing-yi

the morning was actually wet, with light rain, forcing us to meet in the picnic pavilion. it also shrank the practice space down, so things were a little claustrophobic. Sifu began by showing us the Shanxi tai bird (the tai bird is a relative of the ostrich, and is actually extinct, so now figures more in Chinese mythology and history).

you can reference the video here:
Shanxi tai bird: http://youtu.be/SyuQoOdgsfw

Sifu's comments on this were as follows:

• this is a short-range technique using a wide entry to lead into a kidney/rib strike. as such, it requires legwork to move into the correct range. the first step needs to be well-defined, and cannot afford to be trivial, since it acts to close the distance to the opponent.
• the power doesn't come from the arms, but rather from the center of your body. as a result, the legs have to function to drive your center into the opponent. the arms are an auxiliary source of energy.
• do not extend the arms. the elbows should be close to your body.
• the entry is not a block. the opening of the arms are supposed to receive the opponent's attack lightly, so as to avoid giving any signals as to what you are doing.
• in opening the arms in the entry, you have to commit to the movement and extend outwards. imagine sending energy out through the hands. the intent is to get the opponent's attention and have them follow your hands out into space, so that they lose track of your attack to the kidneys/ribs.

we practiced this for a bit. while the form itself is simple, the application is a little tricky. there's a timing issue in terms of redirecting the opponent's focus and moving in to strike. there's also a spacing issue in terms of knowing how much space is needed to mislead the opponent and how much space is needed to strike.

i asked about last week, which covered snake. snake was more complicated, and so i ended up spending more time on it. you can reference the video here:
Shanxi snake: http://youtu.be/KJMDBkvl7GA

here, too, there is a timing issue, and this proved to be the hardest part. Sifu said that the typical instinct with the punch in snake is to have the power come off the front foot. in Shanxi snake, however, the power comes off the back foot. this is why the form has the practitioner stomp the back foot in time with the front snap punch, since it reminds you where the power comes from.

i found this counter-intuitive. it definitely is not instinctive. Sifu said that for now we can work on this methodically, by using a 1-count to mark the initial step and the 2-count to be the combination of the snap punch and rear stomp. eventually, he says we need to make it fluid, since it's important to close the distance to the opponent quickly.

he also noted that the stomp isn't actually necessary. the principle is to use the reaction force off the rear foot to drive the snap punch forward into the opponent. the stomp is just to remind us of this, and hence is more a training tool.

kyudo

kyudo had a large turnout today. holy cow! i counted 20 people altogether, meaning we had 4 rotations through the 5 makiwara.

i was able to pick up from the weekend off without too much trouble. this time, however, i noticed some issues with the glove hand, in that i was more aware of the tension in the hand. Sensei's talked about this in the past. the glove hand is actually supposed to be light, and it is not supposed to grip the string. instead, it's meant to just hold the hand in place so that the string fits into the nock of the thumb. in other words, the string stays because it's in the nock, not because it's being gripped.

this makes a difference, because it makes it easier to draw and release. by avoiding tension in the hand, you're able to get more expansion in the draw. also, the release comes from the natural motion of the hand as you expand out from zanshin, and does not require any action from the hand. the benefits are that 1) you're able to get more draw, and hence more energy into the arrow, and 2) eliminate the hand as a source of disruption to the arrow's flight path.

i was able to ease up some of the tension as the evening wore on, but i think it's going to take a little bit of work to fully address the situation.

Sensei ended up spending some time on giving a lesson on tenouchi. he's taught it before, but he felt it necessary to remind everyone how to grip the bow. we're actually not supposed to grip the bow, but avoid tension and hold it lightly (see the theme here?). this also took a little time for me to work on, and something i know is a work in progress for me.

i finished the evening off by having Eric take some pictures of me shooting. this was so i could get a sense of where i am. it's also ostensibly to have some pictures to show to my relatives so they know what i'm doing, since they haven't heard of kyudo before. i'll post the pictures on this blog eventually when i have some time.

day 307: miao dao

concepts:

• basics
• long-range
  

lessons:

• miao dao

so Viet is back in town from the east coast, but only for the summer before he starts med school. he's asked the Sunday classes be spent on miao diao, with the goal of learning the basics and the form before he leaves at the end of July. i should note that Andre showed up after a very long absence, and so it was fortuitous for Viet (Andre seems to focus primarily on weapons and like the miao dao; he taught Phunsak in years past). everyone else seemed to go along with Viet's desire to learn the miao dao, since there wasn't anything else we've specifically scheduled on Sundays. luckily enough, i had my miao diao with me and so was able to join everyone else.

today we didn't do that much with the basic miao dao form. we ended up just doing the basics with Phunsak. i've including all the videos i made of the 8 basics we learned today, as well as the basic form, below:
basic 1: http://youtu.be/GmpT3wc6FcI

basic 2: http://youtu.be/kvIaQW_3Ypw

basic 3: http://youtu.be/DnkVxGCGCFs

basic 4: http://youtu.be/uhujy87RKhs

basic 5: http://youtu.be/qj2dkGIGzl0

basic 6: http://youtu.be/WAszitg5WKk

basic 7: http://youtu.be/lGRpuALn1xQ

basic 8: http://youtu.be/xPIu6Y1u83k

basic form: http://youtu.be/z05vrj8J--0

my only comment is that the basics are somewhat similar to jian shu in terms of how they are identified by angles (e.g., diagonal, up/down, left/right, etc.), but differ in terms of what the blade is doing. Sifu said that a miao diao is considered a long weapon, and so has to be treated as such. this means that in terms of the philosophy and the fighting strategy you want to exercise the same approach as used with other long weapons, especially the spear. as a result, you don't exercise the same qualities expected of short-range weapons like the jian (e.g., speed, dexterity, and thrusts) or the sabre (e.g., speed, large movements, and slashing) where you are trying to get inside an opponent's gate, but rather qualities expected of long-range weapons like the spear (e.g., small movements, probing, and facing the enemy) where you are trying to keep the enemy at range.

Sifu said like long-range weapons you drive the movements from the dantian, so that small movements of the body translate to large movements of the weapon's tip. he also noted that you're supposed to take advantage of the miao diao's length so that it closes your gates and keeps the enemy out of range while also probing the enemy's gates and penetrating without exposing your own.

day 306: birds birds birds

concepts:

• timing
• parametric calibration
  

lessons:

• hsing-yi
• kyudo
  

ugh. so i should note that my attendance in both kung fu and kyudo has been a little spotty as of late. not entirely by choice, since i've had a conference paper i needed to prepare and present, and that took a number of weekends. as a result, i've missed couple of weekends.

i should also state this is going to continue. i'm going on vacation for a few weeks and so will not have anything to post during that time. as a result, there won't be much on this blog for a little while.

hsing-yi

we picked up with where the class left off. we have a number of people going through the summer season with schedules similar to mine, so we backtracked a bit and spent time reviewing all the Shanxi animals we've covered so far. after that, we continued on to the new animal for the day: swallow.

i'm including videos of Shanxi hawk and swallow. i didn't include the video of hawk last time and swallow is new.

hsing-yi Shanxi hawk: http://youtu.be/RwcF5Dtx8QI


hsing-yi Shanxi swallow: http://youtu.be/a-ySB557eTk


swallow resembles some piqua moves (particularly the 0:14 mark), and some of the baji students concurred, noting that the overall feel of Shanxi swallow is similar to piqua. Sifu noted that the timing of the movements is important, and so the pacing (from 0:10 to 0:15 marks) is not superficial, but is supposed to have a slight acceleration and hesitation, with an explosion coming off the stomping off the foot.

Sifu demonstrated some applications out of this, showing that the initial movements can operate as entries setting up the subsequent movements. he cautioned, however, that every movement within swallow has an application, and so it depends on the context of the situation and what the opponent does.

kyudo

kyudo this evening was a bit of an experiment. i've been working on trying to get more extension into zanshin before releasing, and so have been trying to expand outward from the center. i tried concentrating on just this tonight.

this ended up having some mixed results. pretty much consistent with past experience, any adjustment in one area causes changes in other areas, requiring everything having to be readjusted to get the arrow back onto target. consequently, i spent the better part of class trying to find some consistency in terms of having the arrow release.

Sensei commented that i was expanding, but not outwards. in particular, he observed that in trying to extend my spine i was ending up leaning backwards, which was throwing the aim of the arrow off. he said that i should visualize my neck lifting up, and that this would help me direct the expansion outwards rather than back.

i tried to work on this as best i could, but consistency was definitely an issue. there's an engineering term for this: parametric calibration. it's where all the adjustable items affect each other, so that calibration of one results in changes in everything else, and hence requires that calibration be done slowly in increments of each item relative to the other in a way that allows all items to gradually reach an successive stages of equilibrium relative to each other. the idea is that ultimately you'll reach the desired stage where the equilibrium coincides with a certain desired output. however, getting to that stage requires a lot of minute adjustments of every item in successive iterative passes to successive equilibrium stages, and so takes a fair amount of time.

which is what i'm finding out now. the key word is patience.

day 305: a bucket of chicken

concepts:

• rebound
• soft/hard
• flicking
  

lessons:

• hsing-yi
• kyudo
  

this is going to be a pretty straightforward write-up. i'd meant to post it earlier but Blogspot appears to have had some trouble in the past few days and access has been non-existent for much of it.

today, Sifu announced a series of upcoming events for everyone to note. his May is going to be busy, with something happening every weekend. you can check out the events at his website: http://www.jasontsoukungfu.com/news . May 14 is a tai chi seminar with Sifu Su ZiFang. for May 21, Saturday class will be moved to Cal State Long Beach for a seminar on tang lang (mantis). May 22 will be a panel discussion & presentation on kung fu at the Asia Pacific Museum in Pasadena. May 29 is the Joy of Kung Fu dinner banquet. everyone is encouraged to try and make all the events.

hsing-yi

we spent the class with a shortened review and time dedicated primarily to learning the Shanxi chicken. for today, the focus was on getting the form down, and so we didn't get into too much theory or all the applications within it. it's a much longer form compared to the other hsing-yi animals we've learned, Hebei or Shanxi, and so involved a lot more work in learning the sequence of movements. Shanxi chicken is dramatically different from Hebei chicken, not just because of its length, but because of the content of the form itself, which seems to integrate movements from baji, piqua, and chang quan (long fist).

here's the video so you can see what i mean:
Shanxi chicken: http://youtu.be/YJS0PR5zwHA

this is why this post is more straightforward; we didn't have time to get into discussion or comments. here is what we got today:

• rebound--the applications in the form utilize a rebound effect (e.g., ~14-second point of the video), where you are expected to go from one movement into the next by rebounding off the ground to bounce with force into the next application
• soft/hard--the form reminds the practitioner to switch off between soft & hard (e.g., ~26-second mark of the video) so as to help confuse and misdirect the opponent
• flicking--there is a flicking motion (~35-second mark), with the force vector going out rather than up. this motion isn't just for show, but http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifis meant to help remind you to send the force outwards by following-through on the extension of the arm
  

i asked Sifu about the history of the form to try and figure out its similarities with baji, piqua, and chang quan. Sifu said that Shanxi was the oldest form of hsing-yi, but that this didn't necessarily mean that it derived its similarities from sharing common roots with baji, piqua, or chang quan. he said that Shanxi and Hebei exchanged a lot of ideas with each other, and then also exchanged a lot of ideas with various other martial arts in their respective provinces. he suspects that this is where hsing-yi masters may have recognized some principles as being 1) useful and 2) compatible with what they were doing, and so decided to integrate it into their styles.

i should also provide the video from last week's Shanxi crocodile:
Shanxi crocodile: http://youtu.be/t1A3QzLMwG8


kyudo

kyudo was a little rough today. i was feeling really tired by the time evening rolled around, and so while i mentally was into it, physically i was struggling. i knew what i wanted to do and was conscious of everything, but physically i was just tired and had trouble just moving. as a result, i don't have much to say.

luckily, we had a large turnout this evening (~20 people) and so Sensei decided to start open practice early to allow everyone a chance to shoot. this let me rest a bit. it also gave me some time to do some bow and string maintenance that i've neglected for far too long. having said that, by the time class finished i skipped the midnight meal and just went straight home to rest--which turned out to be the right call, because as soon as i got into bed i immediately went to sleep.

day 304: a busy Sunday of misc concepts out of crocodile

concepts:

• finger
• metal/water v. fire/wood
• center
• bridge/spanner
• structure

lessons:

• hsing-yi

Sunday was a little sparse. it was just me and Phunsak, along with new student, Jonathan (this is a different Jonathan, now making a total of 4 Jonathans who have or are taking lessons with Sifu: me, Jonathan Shen, Jonathan Wong, and the new Jonathan, Jonathan Sevard). Phunsak had missed the Saturday class with Art to represent our school at World Tai Chi & Qigong Day. as a result, we made this Sunday more of a make-up, going into more detail into Shanxi crocodile.

hsing-yi

as much as it looks simple, it appears there's quite a number of permutations coming out of crocodile depending on what principles you choose to incorporate into it. of course, i suspect that this is true of any technique in any style. Sifu has said as much in the past, saying that a technique is not just a technique, but can have any number of applications depending on 1) the situation, and 2) the intent. i'm guessing intent means not just what you want to see happen to the opponent, but also what kind of principle you want to emphasize in the movement. this adjusts the physics, or at least changes what physics you are exploiting, within a movement.

we didn't go into breadth of permutations today as more so than just play with some principles that Sifu wanted to focus on. we used crocodile as the framework to experiment, although following the above reasoning i think it was just convenient because it's what we're covering in class at the moment--i suspect we could have done the same experiments with any other technique.

we reviewed the material from Saturday, but went into more discussion regarding the notion of yin and yang in the hands. Sifu tied this into 5-element theory, offering the following pieces of knowledge:

• the index finger and middle finger correspond to fire and wood, and the ring finger and little finger correspond to water and metal
• fire and wood are considered yang elements, and water and metal are considered yin
• yang involves movements up, out, forward, but this can be interpreted as projecting or sending energy, and yin involves movements down, in, away, but this can also be interpreted as absorbing or receiving energy
  

taking the above, Sifu said you can construct a logic that any intent, or yi, for yin in a technique should involve receiving energy through the ring and little finger, and any intent for yang in a technique should involve sending energy through the index and middle finger.

Sifu said you can see this in crocodile, although it is more apparent in Hebei than Shanxi. with Hebei, both hands have the index and middle fingers slightly more extended than the ring and little fingers. the curled ring and little finger help to sense and receive energy, and the index and middle finger help to send energy. in Shanxi, both hands are open with all fingers extended, but the movement of the hands in crocodile still work with the sensing and receiving still asking for an emphasis on the ring and little fingers and the sending asking for an emphasis on the middle and index fingers.

i didn't ask, but i suspect, that this can also be correlated to ting, hwa, na, and fa. ting and hwa are yin stages, and so call for movements through the ring and little fingers. na and fa are yang stages, and so call for movements through the index and middle fingers. i'm not sure how this ties into water, metal, fire, or wood, since there's yin & yang aspects of each element.

i did ask if this is why with jian shu it's always stressed to reach out through the middle and index finger, with every thrust forward calling for the middle and index fingers of the sword hand pointing into the opponent and the middle and index fingers of the off-hand pointing back. Sifu said yes, and also commented that this is why the defensive moves involve following the direction of the ring and little finger--they may not trace a path conforming to those fingers, but they initiate in their direction.

Sifu had us try variations of this to test how effective or ineffective crocodile can be without visualizing these aspects in the hands. from what i found, it definitely doesn't seem to work as well if you don't sense/receive through the ring and little fingers and send through the index and ring fingers.

Sifu also had us to try scenarios different from crocodile. with one, he had our hands locked in an opponent's grip and we broke out of the lock by projecting power through our thumbs. in essence, the thumbs could also be used to send force.

next, Sifu had us work on integrating the rear hands with the hip. reviewing what we'd done Saturday, he reminded us that with crocodile the power of the rear hand comes from the turning of the hip. the force vector in crocodile has its magnitude coming from 2 components: the power coming from the legs pushing off the ground, and the power coming from the rotation of the hips. the former is linear, the latter is rotational. both, if timed right and structure is maintained, go into the opponent.

the last part is the trick. it's a little bit harder than i thought. Sifu stressed that the rear hand has to be in union with the hip, and the legs have to be pushing as you turn. i had some trouble with this, and couldn't seem to generate the power that Sifu had. for some reason, i couldn't get it to consistently work, while Sifu was able to apply the technique regardless of whatever i did to try and counter it. despite however structurally sound i thought i was, i could not consistently break the opponent down, and despite however structurally sound i thought i was, Sifu could still apply the technique to break me down.

i've noticed this before, and the last time i mentioned this to Sifu he shrugged and just said: "breaking your structure doesn't matter, i can still get the techniques to work." this has always befuddled me.

Phunsak and i ended up spending some time trying to figure this out. i think there's another way to look at this.

what Sifu said worked because it acted to create a structure to convey force through the body. but it's not enough to maintain structure. at least, it's not enough to maintain your structure. for that matter, it's also not enough to think about the opponent's structure. it's also necessary to think about the combined structure of both of you--that is, you have to think about the system composed of you and your opponent and the structure that is composed of both of you.

the combined structure forms the instant you and your opponent make contact. the point of contact becomes the bridge (or to use an engineering term, the spanner) connecting both of you. this creates a single body. whoever controls this single body controls the encounter. whoever doesn't becomes the victim.

i think this is an iteration of the concept "controlling the center." we've talked about this before in terms of combat concepts (reference: combat concepts)--that in physics, in a system of 2 moving bodies, the system of 2 moving masses has a common center of mass. whoever controls this center of mass controls the center of the system, and can thereby control the physics between the moving masses within it.

the difference here, however, is that we're seeing the idea applied not with respect to 2 moving bodies but with respect to 2 connected bodies. technically there's no difference, and so i take this as a "duuuuuuuuuuuh!" moment. in physics they're both the same. in engineering, however, the bodies must be connected to engage leverage, torque, moment, force, etc.

but i also think this is important because in forming the bridge/spanner you have to be cognizant of the common center of mass. we've learned from Sifu that control of the system's center goes to whichever fighter is able to place their own center closest to it. as true as this is for a system of moving masses, it also applies for a system of connected masses. which means that when you form the bridge/spanner with the opponent, you MUST do so in a way that places your own center closer to the common center of mass--and more importantly, keeps it there as the opponent fights back.

once you take the center, you have to keep the center. if you don't, it doesn't matter how good your own structure is, the opponent can still overwhelm you.

this is hard. because no opponent will let you take the center nor keep it. this means you have to know when to relax and when to stiffen to remove or form the bridge, and to know how to move and position so that you can do both. it also means that you do all this in awareness of where your center is relative to your opponent's center and to the common center made by both of you. and it helps to mess with the opponent so they can't challenge you.

Phunsak said this seemed right, and then said it's the same idea with some other moves he's learned in baji, systema, and aiki-jitsu. actions that don't seem like they should work can. we tried using this physics/engineering approach to the other techniques that Phunsak showed, and he confirmed that it seemed to work better--or at least, make things more consistent.

we stopped there for the day. this was a lot of stuff to think about, and i definitely need some time to get this sorted out. it occurred to me this is a recurrence of the problem i've had before regarding my center (you know, the trick Sifu showed us involving a partner making a fist near your chest and you being able to apply a wrist joint lock on them by simply looking down), and that STILL frustrates me. that also involves controlling the center, and i think it's important, because now i can see how the concept applies in terms of fighting.

ugh. frustration!

day 303: crocodile cousins

concepts:

• striking with the hip
• vertical v. horizontal
• yin v. yang
• renmei v. dumei
  
• gashuku
  

lessons:

• hsing-yi
• bagua
  
• kyudo
  

this past Saturday went in a fair amount of depth, and so we didn't go into breadth. i have a relatively large amount of material, so i'll try to condense things as best i can. incidentally, Simon showed up today after a long absence (apparently his schedule opened up so that he was able to make the Saturday class).

hsing-yi

the agenda for hsing-yi was Shanxi crocodile. however, it turns out there are a lot more subtleties in it than i thought, and we ended up spending a lot of time going through a lot of concepts that are not apparent from just watching the form.

we reviewed Hebei crocodile and then compared it to Shanxi. Sifu pointed out the major differences:

• Shanxi has different direction in intent. through the forward (raised) arm, Hebei projects more horizontally out, while Shanxi projects more vertically up. the rear (lower) arm in Hebei is engaged in more of a pushing motion, while in Shanxi it is more of a strike.
• the applications are different. while both have a range of applications, Hebei is more suited for pushing the opponent back and off-balance and Shanxi is more suited for opening up the opponent for a strike.
• the hand positions are different. with Hebei, the hands have the index and middle fingers extended (although not completely) slightly farther than the ring and little fingers (which are loosely curled). with Shanxi, the hands are open.
  

Sifu also pointed out the major similarities:

• the lower body positioning is the same in both, with power coming by pushing off the ground as you slide forward. this, in combination with the upper body, is the fa jing.
• the movement of the legs in the form involve a step and a slide. while the step looks like a single action into the opponent, it actually can be broken down into an entry and control stages--in essence, hwa and na jing. Sifu said that hsing-yi is more direct than other styles, and so it can be difficult to recognize the sequence of ting, hwa, na, and fa in the movements, but you can recognize them by seeing the purpose behind them.
• similar to other internal styles, if ting, hwa, and na are done correctly, the opponent will already be in a problem, and the fa will be a bonus.
• the forward arm aids in the entry, by opening the opponent's gate. for both Hebei and Shanxi, it's important to follow-through, with the finishing point being past the opponent. the point is to disrupt the opponent's centerline and get them off-balance in the entry phase, so that the follow-through is a continuation directing the opponent away.
• the rear arm directs the power. it has to be unified with the power coming from the lower body. to do this, the rear hand stays near (but not on) the back hip, and the rear hand goes with the rear hip as it turns forward into the opponent. while the front arm breaks the opponent's centerline, the rear arm attacks the opponent's center. again, it's important to follow-through past the opponent.
• in doing ting, crocodile has to be initiated with a yin movement. Sifu said this is consistent with all of hsing-yi, and also with all internal styles. the yin movement acts to sense (ting) the opponent's action and absorb/avoid its force vector. it also acts to position the body to release power in the fa phase--that is, it stores potential energy that will be turned into kinetic energy (similar to a pitcher's wind-up in baseball). in addition, it misdirects the opponent by giving them misleading signals as to which direction you're going. to have crocodile do this, it's important to visualize a crocodile looking at its tail, so that your body's entire structure turns to your rear end. this means more than the front arm turning to your rear, but your entire structure. it doesn't have to be an extreme turn, but enough that your force vector starts with a small magnitude generally pointing away from the opponent (yin).
• for both, while the force vector starts in yin, it turns with the hip and increases in magnitude with the pushing of the legs so that it reaches full power at the time its direction goes into the opponent's centerline. for this to occur smoothly, ting, hwa, and na all have to work to open the opponent's gate, disrupt their centerline, and expose their center. this turned out to be a challenge, as we found out when we began practicing its application. Sifu noted that there is a bit of timing involved, and so needs a measure of sensitivity in feeling out the opponent's movements.
  

i should note that the yin-yang discussion brought up some applications outside of hsing-yi. i experimented with the concept with Siwann-di, particularly involving some arm/neck locks that are popular in wrestling. Sifu helped us out, pointing out the various options between yin and yang points and helping recognize ways to think about the concepts in terms of applications.

bagua

Simon has apparently been learning bagua xiao kai men as part of his baji training. Sifu decided it would be good to review some of the applications as a point of reference to hsing-yi. for today, we just did black bear probes with its paw and black bear turns its back. both are similar with hsing-yi crocodile in terms of their lower body, and black bear turns its back is similar with crocodile in terms of how its force vector works.

something Sifu mentioned today that i had not picked up on before was the relevance of thinking renmei (front meridian) and dumei (back meridian) in the application. it helps to move the body in yin actions thinking about the renmei, and conversely helps to move in yang actions thinking about dumei. it may be a visualization tool, but it helps adjust the biomechanics to generate the appropriate physics for the applications.

Sifu also pointed out that with black bear turns its back it's not necessary to try and break the opponent's centerline. he showed how the application focuses instead on the yin-yang distribution of the opponent's stance and can utilize this to direct their center even if their centerline maintains structure. this was new to me, and i found it a little puzzling. i had some difficulty on trying to replicate Sifu's moves, and i think this is going to take more work to figure out.

kyudo

kyudo today was the gashuku. it actually lasted 5 days over the weekend, but i was only able to make the Saturday evening. gashuku is a period of intense training, and Sensei held it as a way of getting the dojo (and other dojos from anywhere in the country or world) together and thereby jump-start to another level in training.

my shooting is feeling more comfortable these days, and i'm not having as much difficulty in the draw as before. Sensei told me to be careful with my bow hand, since i'm gripping too tight and not allowing the bow to turn. the hand is supposed to be loose enough that when the arrow is released the bow can turn through a 180-degree range of motion.

Sensei said this isn't just for aesthetic reasons. he said the aim of the arrow is a function of where it leaves the string. if the bow is locked by the hand into an angle during the release, that means that the arrow will leave the string off the sight-line. this will send the arrow on a flight path deviating from the sight-line of the archer--essentially, you won't hit what you're looking at.

while you can try to lock the bow at the moment of release so it doesn't turn at all, it's very hard on the bow, and in extreme cases can break it. it's better to keep the grip loose and let the bow turn so that the moment the arrow leaves the string it is aligned with the sight-line.

this, of course, is a little harder than it seems. at least, it is for me. i find that my instincts are still to tense the hand on release, which makes my grip tighter. i'm having to retrain myself to loosen the bow-grip at the same time i release from string from the glove hand. i also think it has to do with trying to keep the bow under control as i draw, and the heavier the draw the more i have to work on keeping it under control. i suspect that this is probably a sign that my draw form is still problematic, since it shouldn't be so hard to open up.

it's a work in progress. but then again, aren't we all just a work in progress?

commentary: eating bitterness (吃苦)

this is a cross-posting from my other blog.

i'm writing about the Chinese idiom "eat bitterness" (in traditional Chinese characters: 吃苦). it's a pretty common phrase in TCMA, so i figured it was appropriate to also post it here. you can read it at:

• http://jonathaninthedistance.blogspot.com/2011/04/eating-bitterness.html

cheers.

day 302: Shanxi hsing-yi continued

concepts:

• loose
• snap
• kiu xing (sp?)
• jin xing (sp?)
• spine
  

lessons:

• hsing-yi
• kyudo
  

so i'm starting to get caught up, although i still suspect there's quite a bit of things that i've missed. it's hard to say. details that i think are important may not be thought the same by other people, and so whatever they relay to me may not be what i would have focused on. but i'll work with what i have.

hsing-yi

i'm going to combine all the Shanxi hsing-yi videos that we've done to date and bring things up to where we are now.

so far for Shanxi style we've done dragon, tiger, monkey, and horse. you can see what they look like:

Shanxi dragon: http://youtu.be/fKDe90afZVA


Shanxi tiger: http://youtu.be/9xc4v0-DEgM


Shanxi monkey: http://youtu.be/my2ODmxPSEA


Shanxi horse: http://youtu.be/oM5vK3HCbnc

in terms of notes, i already have what i managed to collect in previous posts for above animals with the exception of horse. for horse, Sifu gave the following:

• the wrists and hands have to be loose, with a heavy feeling, and extend but to a lesser degree than in ostrich (tai bird)
• the wrists and hands have to snap in the form
• the idea is that power is being transmitted from the ground through the body and out through the hands. tensing the wrists or hands acts to choke off the power. similarly, not snapping also throttles power.
  

on a more general comment, Sifu said that to understand the intent (yi) in each animal we can look at them (Hebei, Shanxi, or Henan) in terms of 2 components (someone will have to correct my spelling here, since i'm guessing):
kiu xing (sp?)--this refers to the hunting/predatory phase of an animal's movement, and so reminds you that you're supposed to utilize that kind of mindset and mimic that kind of behavior
jin xing (sp?)--this refers to the spirit or characteristics of the animal, and so reminds you that you're supposed to use that mindset in performing the animal

we spent the class practicing Shanxi horse, as well as the other Shanxi animals. which was good, because i need it.

kyudo

kyudo went well tonight. Sensei said that i'm "developing a nice release," and i took that as a sign of progress. he reminded me to keep my left hand loose enough to allow the bow to rotate, since this is the major issue preventing my release from being clean.

apart from that, i am also working on my extension in the form. this continues to be a major problem. i've been working on this in tai hai (practice without equipment) to try to get a feel of the movement, but there's a difference between practicing without equipment and then doing the form with the tension of the bow. the resistance of the bow induces all kinds of instincts that are contrary to the form, and so disrupts my draw.

right now, i think the issue is not the extension through the arms or legs. the issue is more with my center and my spine, particularly in terms of how i push off the ground and extend my spine from the center up through my neck.

Sensei noted that at full draw just before release i should have a visible opening up of the body through the back, neck, and shoulders. right now, i release while slightly hunched over, meaning that i release short of full extension. i suspect that the extension through the spine up through the neck (i.e., so the neck lifts the head) will help this, since it naturally adjusts posture in terms of the back, neck, and shoulders. i'll see.

day 301: okay, so things still shaky

concepts:

• hand, forearm, elbow
• xiao jieh, jong jieh, gong jieh
  
• hips
  
• shanxi-hebei-henan

lessons:

• hsing-yi

well, things are still shaky. i got sick (or i was still sick?), and it left me unable to attend Saturday classes, meaning it took out kung fu and kyudo. even though i still wasn't feeling much better by Sunday, i sucked it up enough to make it for about 2 hours before going hope to rest. as a result, this post is going to be brief, since it's just dealing with Sunday.

Sunday ended up being a review of hsing-yi, since Kieun, Cheng-chieh, and me all needing to fill in the material we've missed over the past few months. We focused on going through the Hebei 12 animals, which everyone else has already finished, and managed to go through the Shanxi 12 animals that everyone just started.

i'm not going to comment much in this post, since i'm still sorting through the material. but i will post the videos of the stuff i missed that we covered Sunday. because there is so much stuff i'm trying to catch up on, i made a fair number of videos on Sunday. to help keep this digestible, i'm going to limit the videos here to the Hebei 12 animals that have been missing from past posts, and hold off on the Shanxi 12 animals until next time.

Hebei 12 animals tai bird: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjcoYOyEnaA


Hebei 12 animals eagle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6dP-Ny6ekA


Hebei 12 animals bear: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhTzx7_u3U4


Hebei 12 animals eagle-bear: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAZHY2MHASI

i should note that eagle and bear are supposed to be done as a combination. for learning purposes, however, Sifu says that they are taught separately to help students understand the physics of each before trying to merge them. Sifu reminded us of the following:

• eagle: here, the emphasis is not on the hand, but rather through the elbow. the hand serves as a way of understanding the direction of the force vector, which goes from the hand in a direction through the elbow. this allows the weight, hence the magnitude of the force vector, to sink through the forearm and elbow. Sifu said that we can break down the physics in terms of xiao jieh (sp?), or tip; jong jieh (sp?), or branch; and gong jieh (sp?), or root. ordinarily these terms relate to the body and are used to help identify the role of each part in applying the principles behind techniques. here, the tip is the hand, the branch is the forearm/elbow, and the root is the shoulder/torso. the main force and general direction comes from the root, finer direction comes from the branch, and the reminder comes from the hand. as a result, theoretically a technique properly done can be applied using just the torso, but for most people it helps to focus by using the hand to remind themselves that power is projected through the forearm/elbow, and thereby helps to adjust the torso to allow this.
  
• bear: last time we'd stressed the importance of having the scapula be the contact point with the opponent and the physics of creating a cantilever as we shrug the shoulder and sink. today, Sifu noted that we also have to pay attention to the hip, which drives additional force into the shrug. the important thing is to have the hips go square relative to the opponent so that the legs push against the ground with the force turning with the hips in alignment with the shoulders.
  

the eagle-bear combo changes the form of each, but Sifu observed that the physics of both complement each other so long as we remember what we want the body parts to be doing in terms of the physics.

we also spent some time discussing the curriculum. Sifu's plan is to go through Hebei and Shanxi styles of hsing-yi, since he's studied both and their curricula are similar. they share the same 5 lines, 5-element theory, and lian huan, with the major differences being the 12 animals. he hopes to spend a little time introducing Henan style, but since he's not as familiar with it and it's so different, we're going to just focus on getting its flavor. Henan does not have 5 lines or lian huan, and instead just goes direct to teaching students 10 animals.

that was pretty much it for Sunday. i'll offer more material in subsequent posts as i work on getting caught up.

day 300: wait, where am i? oh, god, i'm lost. whatever

concepts:

• bear
• eagle
• shanxi-hebei
• extension

lessons:

• hsing-yi
• kyudo

well, i'll preface this by saying that i'm pretty much lost. i've had another extended break period that was somewhat involuntary. i got sick, recovered just in time to do the LA marathon, then go sick again, recovered once more, and then got sick again. it may be the same illness that just won't go away, or it may be that i've just been exposed to a lot of sick people with different kinds of diseases.

regardless, i'm now largely lost as to where we are and what we're doing. really lost. oh sure, i know we're learning hsing-yi and wrapping up the 12 animals (of which, incidentally, i missed half, or 6). and oh sure, i know we're learning kyudo and working on gloves (even while i'm still working out everything else about the art). but in terms of lessons and details, there's just been so much i've missed that i might as well be on another planet.

i think we'll have to do what we did before, and make one of the next Sundays a hsing-yi make-up section. i know Kieun and Cheng-Chieh are in situations comparable to mine, so it'd probably benefit all of us.

hsing-yi

i pretty much stated where i am above. i will say that we spent about half the class working on the last animal in the Hebei style 12 animals. it's not actually 1 animal, but a combination of movements of bear and eagle.

for the remainder of class we turned to Shanxi style. Sifu reminded us that there were 3 major versions of hsing-yi: Hebei, Shanxi, and Henan. technically, Shanxi was the original, and Hebei and Henan developed after. however, Sifu noted that you can't see this from the curriculum, since the 3 all experienced changes over time, with some more than others.

Henan was the most well-preserved, since the Muslim community was largely insular and mostly kept the art within the community, preventing its practitioners from interacting with other practitioners from other branches of hsing-yi. Hebei, in contrast, was where hsing-yi became more popular, and its exposure and propagation led to changes in the way it was taught and the content that was taught. Shanxi practitioners responded to this by making changes in their hsing-yi, and as a result it also moved away from its original form.

having said that, Sifu said you can still see different teaching philosophies at work in the contrasting curriculums. he pointed that in Hebei the 12 animals are largely meant to train the body and help the body adapt to certain kinds of physics, and so you can't see the applications easily and what applications you find work differently than what happens in training. in Shanxi, however, the 12 animals are still done closer to the original hsing-yi roots, and so the emphasis is less on training and more on actual applications. Sifu said we'd compare with Henan, but for now we'd go through the Shanxi and compare to the Hebei.

we began with the Shanxi dragon. this is definitely different from Hebei. Hebei involves jumping and a deliberate emphasis down. Shanxi, in contrast, is almost no jumping and the direction of intent is not strictly down, but at an angle. also, with Shanxi, the application is clearly evident from the movement, with an eery resemblance to black bear probes with its paw from bagua. Sifu showed that it's a little different, but that there is some overlap.

i have some other notes from today, but i'm going to hold off until i get things more organized.

kyudo

kyudo this evening actually went okay considering the time i've missed. i'm starting to feel more familiar with certain aspects of the form, and it's freeing up my mind to concentrate on other issues that i've had with shooting. Jean pointed out that right now my major issue is my extension, in that i'm not going far enough at full extension. she said that i should be able to open the bow more at full extension than i am doing.

Sensei has commented on this about me before, and i'm only just now getting to the point where i can understand why this is happening. i think the issue is to focus on the elbows and shoulders expanding outward, and letting the chest and back follow. to do this, i have to allow the chest and back to be loose. right now, i can feel them tensing, and thus locking into place, leaving me unable to go expand beyond the range of motion in my shoulders and elbows. if i can get the chest and back to relax, it should allow the shoulders and elbows to lead them out, and thereby gain additional reach from the opening of the chest and back.

of course, this is easier said than done. i spent the entire class working on this, but it's a bit of work to unlearn my habit of tensing the chest and back and to instead focus on just relaxing. a lot of this, i suspect, is that i can feel the tension in the string and the bow, and the natural instinct is to tense up in response (much as a fighter feels the muscles tense up in response to feeling an opponent tense up). the appropriate response of relaxing is actually counter-intuitive.

but at least i'm feeling some progress, so that's positive.

days 298 & 299: horse and crocodile

concepts:

• explosive power
• moving with the center
• expanding from the ground
  

lessons:

• hsing-yi
• kyudo
  

i'm going to merge the posts from 2 separate Saturdays into this (actually 1 Sunday and last Saturday, since we skipped 1 Saturday due to the San Diego tournament). for hsing-yi, there's not much to say, other than that we're following the progression through the 12 animals, keeping to 1 new animal each week. i made kyudo classes both weekends, so my comments will apply to the classes as usual.

some announcements to note: Sifu's birthday was February 9th, which we celebrated during class and the post-class lunch, and Art's birthday is February 26th, which we plan to celebrate during dinner since it's a big one (it's his 70th). also, Sifu says we should plan on a potluck/disciple meeting in early March, with details to be finalized soon.

hsing-yi

for the past 2 classes, we covered horse and then crocodile. i'll provide the videos of each below so you know what i'm discussing, with commentary for each:

horse: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBpcuxa3kM4

for horse, Sifu noted the following:

• as much as it may not look it, the movement is a permutation of line 5 in the 5-elements hsing-yi, with the difference being that whereas line 5 involved a turning motion to the side, horse involves a drilling motion straight ahead. there is also a difference in that for horse the power involves movement forward.
• horse is explosive, with Sifu stressing that the power has to discharge from the body. this means that you don't maintain tension, but have to tense and then release the energy through the body.
• power comes from the movement forward, but in a way that is not tied to the steps alone but instead from the combination of the steps with the advancement of the center. Sifu said this is important, since it maintains the structure and allows you to use the reaction forces from the ground.
  

i found this somewhat difficult. for some reason, i'm having trouble coordinating the stepping with my center, and as a result i'm not projecting power as i move forward. i've been practicing this, but i think it's going to take a little work. i think the key idea is to think about moving the center, and that will maintain the structure as i step. i'll have to see.

crocodile: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUlr5L4cEj0

for crocodile, Sifu noted the following:

• don't use the arm only. the power in the movement comes from the body, with the turn coming from the spine and the power coming from the ground. the arm is simply an extension of the structure formed by the torso moving about the spine, and the structure has to stay solid.
• your body turn has to follow your eyes, such that the eyes initiate the movement and lead the body. this helps to maintain structure and ensure that the movement comes from the structure.
• much like horse, you have to move from the center.
  

this one seemed a little easier for me, but i suspect because it is similar to movements in bagua, long fist, and tai chi and so i have some muscle memory to work with. it seems to be a permutation of the physics applied in the other styles.

kyudo

kyudo lately has been getting better, in the sense that i don't seem to be so completely discombobulated with the form and i am able to work on specific things that result in corresponding improvements. having said that, it's still a work in progress, since there are quite a number of things to sort out.

the draw is getting much easier for me, and i am not struggling with the bow as much as i used to. i'm also getting a better sense of the alignment problem in my shoulders, and am having an easier time sensing when they're turning square into the target as opposed to staying perpendicular. i think the key is to turn my head while visualizing that my chin is trying to align with my left shoulder.

Sensei noted that i'm still pulling too much using the upper body, and that this is leading to me falling forward into the bow as i should, resulting in a deviation of the arrow off my sight line which has been a continual issue for me (my arrows always seem to go to the right of the makiwara). he said i need to draw from the ground, so that even as my upper body expands my lower body is expanding into the earth. he believes that this will stabilize my form and allow me to generate more power to draw the bow--both things that will allow me to maintain the form and direct the arrow to my sight line.

but things are getting better. i'm actually enjoying shooting now--as opposed to before, when i was dreading it.

i think the long gaps of time off last autumn actually may have helped me. my suspicion is that over the course of last year i had developed a lot of bad habits, and that they were subconsciously piling up on each other in a compounding cascade of problems impeding my form. i needed to deprogram myself of them, and i think the time off operated as a "reset" or "reboot" switch that let me clear my head of all the bad habits in my subconscious and start over with a clean slate.

it seems to have worked. at least now i feel like i'm making progress.

day 297: a little harder than it seems

concepts:

• dragon
• tiger
• monkey
  

lessons:

• hsing-yi
• kyudo
  

this post is for last Saturday. things got a little busy again this past week, and so i'm a little slow posting.

hsing-yi

we followed the customary agenda for the class with a review of the 5 lines and the 12 animals we've done so far (dragon and tiger). Sifu had another pop quiz, with everyone doing the 12 animals individually in front of the class to check on form and fine-tune movements. this was straightforward, and so i won't go into any more detail here beyond what i've previously posted.

the new animal for today was monkey. Sifu said that this employs the characteristics often associated with the monkey in Chinese culture: an animal that is attentive, inquisitive, active to the point of being hyper, and always engaged in misdirection and unpredictable activity. if there was ever an animal that could be perceived as having ADD, this is it.

in keeping with the Chinese take on monkey, Sifu noted that TCMA uses of the animal refer to the same qualities. he repeated the point he's made in the past that TCMA doesn't mean you actually behave like a monkey (i.e., roll of the floor, make monkey sounds, etc.), but that you employ some of the characteristics relevant for fighting. for TCMA, this means the qualities described above, in particular:

• the hands and arms do not always engage to project power, but instead act to sense out the opponent or confuse the opponent;
• you are not actually always using the hands, but instead more the arms;
• the footwork is light, and always active;
• the body is supple and loose;
• you are always changing direction;
• you are always unpredictable.
  

the form for this involves actions that are vaguely reminiscent of mantis (tang lang). Sifu reminded us that mantis (tang lang) uses monkey footwork, and so that this should be familiar for those students who studied mantis before.

i should also note that the form for monkey is much more intricate than for dragon or tiger. it involves moving into position facing 6 different directions. Sifu noted that for each direction, you can change the intent in the movements, so that each direction you are emphasizing different techniques.

this was a little harder than it seemed, and i found myself getting lost. this is going to take some work--at least, more than dragon or tiger.

i'll put the video of the form here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85sqPL0vhsg


kyudo

kyudo this evening had a lot of new people. out of the 18 people in attendance, i think 10 were either new or visitors.

things went okay for me this evening. i'm starting to find it easier to draw the bow, and i've been able to feel my way around the form more. Sensei asked me to work on my alignment, since this would help send the arrow out straight.

i've been aware of this problem and have been trying to correct it, but i think tonight i finally started to get a sense as to what's been wrong. viewed from the top, my shoulders are turning to face the target (not square, but are tending that direction). this is a problem, since it prevents full extension of the bow, and it also means that the arrow goes at an angle out of the bow. as i go into zanshin, i need to make sure my shoulders follow a line perpendicular to the plan of the target face.

this, however, once again, is a little harder than it seems, since it requires that i acquire the body sensitivity to know which way my structure is facing while i am moving through the form. this is going to take some work.

day 296: backtrack a little

concepts:

• 5 lines

lessons:

• hsing-yi

there was no Saturday class because of the San Diego tournament, so this post is actually for Sunday.

we didn't cover anything new Sunday. we decided to spend it going back through the materials that Cheng-Chieh and i had missed. for today, we spent it working through the details of the 5 lines. i've written about the 5 lines and the 5 element theory behind it before, so i won't repeat it here. the main focus for me today was to refine and polish the movements.

i realized that i hadn't made a video of the 5 lines, and so i did make one today. you can see the 5 lines here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zG3hWtus6fU


this actually took a fair amount of time, and we ended up going a little long. but it was useful, since it filled in a major gap in material that we'd missed. at least now we're a little closer to getting caught up to where everyone else is, although not quite. but it'll make next Saturday easier to digest.

day 295: dragon, tiger, & recalibration, oh my!

concepts:

• vertical v. horizontal
• front wheel drive/rear wheel drive
• yin-yang
• ting/hwa/na/fa jing
  
• recalibration

lessons:

• hsing-yi 12 animals
• kyudo
  

today was largely straightforward with just a direct progression on the curriculum. one thing to note is that there is a tournament in San Diego on Saturday, January 22, meaning that there will be no class (and so no post). there will, however, be the usual Sunday morning class. i should also probably note that this was technically the first kyudo lesson of the year, since last week was a cleaning day and before that classes had been canceled for ceremonies around the LA area.

hsing-yi 12 animals

since this was just the second Saturday back, we did a repeat of the class format from last Saturday, going through a review of the 5 lines and the lian huan form. things were a little bit smoother today for both, as i started to remember things better. having said that, i think there's still quite a bit of fine-tuning that i need to do for things to look right.

the review took up half the class, and we consumed the remainder with the 12 animals. Sifu held a pop quiz for everyone, asking each of us to do the dragon individually in front of class and then giving us pointers. for me, he noted that i need to focus more on sending pressure downward as i land, since the techniques in dragon involve vertical vectors going into the ground. currently, my movements don't manifest any effort downward. Sifu said that if done right, dragon appears to have an explosive acceleration down into the ground even more than it displays an explosive jump up.

as a pointer, Sifu said that the way to get the downward explosion is to engage the front wheel-rear wheel drive with my hands. in dragon, as you jump up the rear hand comes up and forward and the forward hand comes down and back. Sifu said that the rear hand essentially is the rear-wheel drive and the front is the front-wheel drive, where the switch in hand positions means a redirection of force through the arms, so that the switch of the rear hand to the front also means using it to direct force forward and down. the sending of the force forward and down needs to coincide with the downward portion of the jump.

you can see the video of the dragon here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5hyV4-5pn0


after dragon, Sifu taught us tiger. he said that tiger differs from dragon, in that while dragon primarily involves movement in a vertical direction, tiger involves movement in a horizontal direction. the technique in tiger is more of a pushing action, but in a way that is more explosive and has vector components forward and downward.

Sifu noted that for the technique to work, you don't push with open hands for much of the movements. instead, you keep your hands closed, and wait to open the hands until you project force. the technique involves moving forward holding the forearms out with the hands closed and facing palm-up. when the practitioner has reached an appropriate position relative to the opponent and decides to release power, the practitioner then turns the forearms so the closed hands face palms-down. at this point, the practitioner not only finishes by moving the body forward and down, but also extending the forearms and opening the hands. Sifu said that the opening of the hands is the final impetus allowing extension of the arms and body, and adds a last bit of force to the technique.

Sifu stressed that we are not supposed to lock our elbows at any point in tiger, but instead keep them slightly bent and loose. he also cautioned that we have to apply the technique with the entire body as a single structure (i.e., the legs, hips, spine, torso, shoulder, upper arms, elbows, forearms, and hands all holding as a single unit), so that when we move we do so as a single unit. he said this was necessary to allow the reaction force from the ground to transmit efficiently (i.e., without any loss) through the body and into the forearms and hands. without the body in a single unit, energy is lost at the disjuncture points (i.e., energy is lost at flexing joints, poorly aligned structure, tense muscles, etc.).

the main pushing action in tiger is through the legs, so as to generate the reaction force from the ground. this is the main source of power in the technique, and is the force that we are trying to direct using our body. any power from the upper body is less than whatever power we generate using our legs to push against the ground. as a result, any pushing motion in the upper body should only come at the end of the technique after the reaction force has already been sent into the opponent (i.e., after the main force vector has already been delivered), which is why the forearms turn and the hands open only at the very end, since this helps you to focus on holding your overall structure to keep your body as a single unit.

done properly, the feeling the opponent receives from tiger should be like a mass entering through the gate (not around or under or over, but through) to destabilize the opponent's structure, and which then drives through the opponent's centerline so that the opponent moves backwards and down. the key is to destabilize the structure, after which point the opponent is unable to use their power to counter your force vector.

the destabilization occurs by using the force vector of tiger so that it acts as a yang element filling in the yin component of the opponent's structure, which requires that you move into a position relative to the opponent so that this can occur. Sifu said this is where we have to remember the ting-hwa-na-fa progression, and that tiger (nor any of the other 12 animals) is not always about fa, but is also about ting, hwa, and na, with the forearms in tiger serving as our sensing elements leading our bodies through the progression of jings.

after showing us tiger and leading us through the movements, Sifu had us work on tiger on our own, telling us to just concentrate on the general feeling of the technique. he said we'd work on polishing tiger in the next class.

you can see the video of tiger here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWrhA_ZdqMo


we finished with that. i skipped the post-class lunch to run errands.

kyudo

kyudo went surprisingly well tonight, considering i'd essentially missed almost 6 weeks of classes. admittedly, Sensei made the class a little easier for everyone, since it was the 1st class back from the winter holidays and we also had a fair number of visitors observing. after the 1 round of formal shooting, he let us go into open shooting so he could spend time giving basic lessons and meeting with the visitors.

for me, Sensei said i'd made progress, and that i was now able to release much better than i had last year. now, however, he said i had to work on the last part of zanshin, with a final expansion of the body out before i released the string. currently, i'm at the full range of my shoulders and arms at release, but Sensei says that i can get additional range by having an expansion through the back, spine, and neck, which would allow my shoulders and arms to extend further out.

of course, once i tried to do this, i promptly had a return of struggles releasing the arrow. Sensei said that this is typical--your body gets used to drawing and releasing a certain way, and so any change in one area promptly disturbs everything else in the body. this requires a constant recalibration of all the shooting actions as the practitioner works to improve specific aspects of the form.

with this in mind, i can see that i'm still a work in progress.